Gamestop Exclusive Power Rangers Lightning Collection Goldar Gallery

"I want whatever Lord Zedd wants. And that's you!"

This mighty winged menace has been known to terrorize heroes far and wide across the galaxy. Waging wars on countless worlds, he's made his mark in the fight to control the universe. But after being freed from a 10,000 year slumber, the Power Rangers of Earth became his greatest foes. For millennia, he has served at the beck and call of his empress, Rita Repulsa. And even before that, he was a loyal general in the armies of the fearsome Lord Zedd. Born on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, the shining warrior Goldar is a force for all heroes to reckon with.

For (more or less) 4 seasons and two movies Goldar has menaced the Power Rangers, while sometimes being a bit of a goof about it. While he fought the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers many times, as the series began to phase out of usable Zyuranger footage, he certainly took less of a starring villain role. But even by the time of the third season/Alien Rangers, he still had plenty of scenery to chew with his best bud Rito Revolto. Though he became more of a comedic relief character in Zeo (honestly my favorite characterization of him) he would eventually albeit briefly return for In Space. As a member of the Alliance of Evil, still faithfully serving Rita & Zedd. Goldar went out fighting as Zordon's light engulfed all evil in the galaxy, thus expunging it and him.

Goldar is honestly one of the most complex villains the franchise has ever produced. Like Zedd, Rita, and Rito he's had multiple seasons of evolving characterization, but in his case even more so. Goldar is the standard bearer of all villains for this franchise. And his debut in the Lightning Collection toyline is honestly a huge deal to me, and I think it should be a huge deal to all collectors. For years fans begged Bandai America to make more villains. Hasbro has already delivered 3 pretty snazzy ones in this line so far with Lord Zedd, the Putty and now Goldar.

Packaging
In creating this line, Hasbro was keen to make sure they appealed to collectors and fans of the franchise from throughout it's various eras. Given the aim to make this appeal to an older crowd, the packaging seems to have taken a page out of the Star Wars Black Series book. In similar collector style boxes, the Lightning collection figure's look a bit brighter thanks to a primarily white color scheme. But they also really pop thanks in no small part to some wonderful box art, lovingly crafted by artist Tom Whalen aka @strongstufftom on twitter. His artwork is breathtaking, and makes these figure's feel like just a bit more of a passion project from the folks at Hasbro.

Goldar's profile artwork takes up a majority of the packaging, while the back of the box is relegated to a single stock photo of the figure. I find this box delightfully loud and garish too. Goldar comes in a primarily orange and gold box, at odds with the predominantly white standard packaging of the rest of the line. So it's a nice pop of color to the otherwise uniform collection.

Main Figure
The likeness of this Goldar figure strikes (in my opinion) a pretty great balance of the original Grifforzer suit most often seen during MMPR season 1 Zyuranger based footage, and the slightly adjusted suit that would become standard in all american footage throughout the rest of his canonical appearances. As time went on in the American footage the particular type of gold coloring seemed to change a bit, but also a specific physical change was made to the suits' mouth after season 1, episode 45. As with any prop used for long term filming, wear/tear/repair takes a toll, and small fixes add up over time to make drastic change. I know some collector's may dislike the particular way this figure is colored, but I have to say, I think it's a fantastic compromise of the show suits used. The two movie designs are an entirely different can of worms we won't get into. It should be noted that the stock photo on the box portrays a uniformly gold painted figure, something I would have liked. But who knows what happened between the time that was mocked up, and the figure was actually getting ready to drop for mass production.

But enough about paint, how about how the figure is engineered? Purely based on the finer details, this figure has the most intricate sculpt in the line, even more so than Zedd. Goldar is adorned with pads, and armor, and straps, and rivets, and fabric folds, the works. While the somewhat uniform color scheme can sometimes mask these details, on closer inspection they really do shine so to speak. The shins in particular features some of my favorites like the subtle scarring or fabric fold on the shin armor, or the sculpted leather straps that run around the back of the leg as though to keep the two halves of the muscle together. While impressive looking though, these shins do impact the foot's movement. The forward tilt of the ankle is sadly nullified, but the backward tilt works pretty well. Thankfully the ankle rockers can compensate somewhat, but even they suffer a bit from this design.

The bulky sculpt of the legs is broken only by the glaringly narrow knees, particularly from a side view. Though the bulk of the lower legs still means you lose a little of the knee bend. If the ankles were less restricted then this wouldn't be a huge issue but as is it it's not a great mix. Goldar's waste skirt armor is something that looks absolutely stunning, but could have probably used another pass on design. The extra gold paint apps are gorgeous, though one of the green jewels isn't fully painted on mine. The back of the skirt has Goldar's tail molded to it, and although it's not a rigid plastic, it's not exactly flexible either so it may get in the way while posing. The armor itself as one an entire piece though really knocks out a lot of the usefulness of the hips themselves. It's quite frustrating how the design choices of the lower body impact the way the overall figure looks when posed, because everything else about it like the paint and sculpt are exquisite.

Goldar could have benefited a lot from a waist swivel, but the ab crunch at least goes far enough considering the bulk of the waist and torso armor. Once again, the upper body is magnificently sculpted and the gold paint apps are just subtle enough to help the textured parts of the chest stand out. While the rotation of the upper body isn't ideal it's surprising how much you can really get out of this guy given the design. Goldar's back has some more exquisite blink and you miss it detailing in the form of fabric folds and armor creases. And obscured under his mane of hair are peg holes to attach the included wings. Because of how the wings attach to the body (see the accessories section below) they do jockey for position with the head for posing. Goldar's hair tends to get in the way of doing anything dynamic with them, particularly when you move his head side to side.

Goldar's arms are largely designed in the same standard as the rest of the line. With good elbow bends, a bicep swivel, and decent clearance for the wrist joint, there's a bit to work with. However the shoulders suffer a great deal because of the permanently fixed armor surrounding them. The shoulder pads are directly connected to the main body and are only partially flexible. When moving the arm up to pose, these get in the way every time and neuter a great deal of movement. Goldar still manages to look dynamic and imposing, just less than should otherwise be possible.

The head however, is an absolutely stunning sculpt. While the fin around Goldar's face and his horns are sculpted well and accent things nicely, the main event is his face. I mean just look at the lines, the creases, the realness of that face. Goldar looks like he's flexing every angry muscle scowling at some pesky Power Rangers. I'm truly very impressed with this face, even if the rest of the head is a mixed bag. Goldar's mane of hair extends around the back of his head draping across the ports to plug his wings into, which as I said makes for trouble when posing them. But the hair also extends down in a long tuft on either side of the neck, coming down over his chest. This is an area where Hasbro really should have considered using soft goods. With the fairly rigid plastic used, this hair on the chest knocks out a good chunk of the potential articulation for the head. While you can definitely still make use of some of the side to side movement, leaving the head turned for any prolonged period will warp the hair parts temporarily.

While I definitely love the look of this figure, and I'm really pleased that it exists, it is a bit of mixed bag on the design front. With his wings removed Goldar feels like a more stable action figure that can pose pretty well. But adding them to the mix adds extra weight and balance issues on top of having to fiddle with them a lot to get then sitting just right. It's imperfect but it's still the best Goldar we've ever gotten, hands down.

Accessories
Goldar comes with just what you need to accent him:

2- alternate hands. One open right hand for more menacing poses, replacing the sword holding hand that comes standard. And one left sword holding hand to replace the standard closed fist.

1 - Sword. Goldar's is a nameless sword, though in Zyuranger it was given the supremely cool name Griffocalibur IV. It's a basic gray in toy form with only the jewel of the hilt painted red. Unlike the actual figure, this feels less like a compromise of color choices and more like they ran out of budget to give it a golden color. Admittedly in footage it's a brownish gold and maybe getting the color match right for that was difficult? EIther way the sword does feel just a bit underwhelming compared to the figure.

1 - Sword Effect Part. A purple electric energy effect, this part slides down over the blade of the sword and latches over the hand guard, holding it in place. This is easily the best executed effect part in the line so far and wish more of them attached to weapons as securely as this one.

2 - Wings. Packaged with plastic ties to the inner cardback of the box, Goldar's wings are a must have for any figure of him. While his wings disappeared quite often, and without warning due to footage used, they're easily the most recognizable feature he has. These wings have some fairly simple soft plastic plugs which slot into the holes on Goldar's back. Thankfully the plastic of both the wings and back plate is soft enough to allow you to remove them as you please. However I can see where over time this may cause them to weaken and droop over time. Each wing is on a swivel that allows them to spread out against his back, or fold fully back side to side. They can also rotate up or down thanks to the plugs used. In the midsection where the wings connect there's another rotational joint so you can sort of unnaturally angle them backward, or hinge them up, or back down into a more compact folded form against his back. Sadly these swivels were stuck in place on mine and had to be trimmed to work. Even now though, one is still so tight that it's difficult to even get the wings evenly posed.

That may not seem like much, but aside from a few other one off items used by Goldar, he comes with everything he really needs. As always, more hand would nice, but they aren't entirely necessary.

Final Thoughts
Collectors have waited years for this figure. Paltry attempts at a much smaller scale were done in the last decade by Bandai America, but they simply couldn't deliver on the regal menace of this character. While Hasbro's Lightning Collection Goldar has some issues for certain, I can't help but be charmed to finally own it. Pairing him up with Lord Zedd, it's quite nice to finally have some villains to menace my rangers. While he's been sold out through GameStop's website for some time now, it has on occasion come back in stock. So if you missed him, just keep checking back for a restock. Flaws and all, I'd still recommend picking Goldar up.

Part 2

No clue what business Negataros and Clay Doll have with Goldar, but what do I care; it's a cool shot!

Just a shot for scale with some kaijin

The 6" Cybervillains and Lightning Zedd are the only other modern PR villain figs I had. So I figured why not.

i'm noticing a distinct lack of French maid cosplay...

You try finding a decent 1:12 scale maid outfit that's also intended for big golden winged bozos!

Seriously, I looked, couldn't find anything that would fit him right.

I honestly couldn't agree more. I'd go as far as to say that Goldar is responsible for my interest in watching all the Power Rangers, which led to Sentai, Rider, Ultraman and beyond.

Goldar ended up altering the course of my adult life, and I've been super eager to see how this figure ended up. I doubt it could have disappointed me as I'm too biased, and I love how incredible the headpiece is. Easily the best representation of any Goldar figure I've seen (and I've collected a lot of stuff for Goldar!)

The aftermarket price for this is so high, and even worse if you're in the UK like I am due to postage charges. I'll keep an eye out for a good deal and hopefully get my hands on this one day!

Thanks so much for a great review and the awesome pictures of the details

Damn, they need to restock this ASAP. I have no feepings for the character but good that they nailed it

Got mine, he's awesome. His face is incredible. Don't care for the wings all that much by way of how they attach and work, but they look sweet.

Definitely need to get on that search to find a 1:12 scale maid outfit.